December was the coldest month in Vancouver for almost a decade

December was the coldest month in Vancouver in almost a decade

December 2016 was one of the coldest months on record in Vancouver ((Hubert Figuière/Flickr)

If it felt exceptionally cold in Vancouver last month, well, that’s because it was.

In fact the last time Vancouver experienced a month this cold was back in December 2008 when the city experienced the same 0.9°C average that rounded off 2016.

And while it may be a warming thought to know it wasn’t exactly a record-breaking month temperature-wise, it’s certainly been a little while since the city has seen temperatures in this range. In fact, “you have to go all the way back to January 1993 to find a colder month in Vancouver,” meteorologist Doug Gillham told Daily Hive via email.

Let’s look at the numbers

According to The Weather Network, December in Vancouver typically sees daily temperatures range between 0.8 – 6.3°C, with 0°C temperatures only hitting the city for an average of 12 days of the month.

However, December 2016 was a bit of a different story.

In total, the city dealt with 22 days of temperatures at – or below – 0°C. Three of those days had below-zero daytime highs, this resulted in an average daytime high of only 3.8°C for the entire month.

The average temperature overall though – in both 2008 and 2016 – held at 0.9 °C. In January 1993? A chilly 0.4 °C.

To put this all into context, let’s go back a few decades to January 1950, which boasts Vancouver’s coldest month on record, when the the average daily temperature reached just −6.3 °C.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Let’s look at the numbers

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